Pulling off a dangerous stunt
A source from the unit said, “Arshad loves bikes so when director Rohit Shetty asked him if he would do the dangerous bike stunt himself or take a stuntman, Arshad was so excited that he immediately said yes. It was for the introductory shot and the stunt was shot in Mumbai.”
However, Arshad was in for a big surprise when he realised that he would not be riding the bike as much as he would be being dragged behind it.
“This could have been dangerous. And as if this was not enough, he also had to do a somersault from the moving bike onto the ground. He was apprehensive and we all had our hearts in our mouths though all the safety precautions had been taken,” adds the source.
Shetty, who also is the action director and devises the stunts himself, said, “Golmaal 3 has plenty of high-octane action apart from the usual comedy and Arshad’s bike stunt is one of them. I explained the stunt to Arshad and told him it was risky but he was keen to do it himself. We usually rehearse the stunt a day before with my stunt assistants. The rehearsal went smoothly but on the final day when we shot for it, the special shoes with rubber soles which we had made for Arshad, got torn and he almost slipped and fell a few times.”
Fortunately, Arshad was not really hurt except for a few bruises. “Arshad had to hold the bike and follow it from behind and almost slipped a few times. When I describe the stunt scenes to my actors before shooting them, I also show it to them. If they are confident about the stunt, I go ahead and make them do it with safety measures. We have had stunts with Kareena and Ajay too. Though Arshad’s shot went off smoothly, it was time-consuming as his soles kept getting torn and we had to replace them. We shot the scene in a day,” Shetty said. When asked about it, Arshad said, “I like to go the Tom Cruise way. I prefer to do my own stunts.”